Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Readable and entertaining. . . . De Wolk not only introduces a much more believable Stanford, warts and all, but also does a great job of showing how his legacy and reputation was managed, massaged and sanitized after his death." * True West *
"
American Disruptor provides a dense but swift-moving primer on Stanford’s rise from tavern owner’s son to tycoon." * Stanford Magazine *
"The original tech bro? Leland Stanford, co-founder of Stanford University, emerges as a spiritual forefather of Silicon Valley-style monopolism, exploitation and conflicts of interest in this dramatic new biography by Bay Area journalism professor Roland De Wolk." * KQED Arts *
"A superb new account of Stanford’s 'preposterous career and life.'" * Berkeleyside *
"Stanford was an uneducated anti-intellectual, yet defined himself as “a technologist” and wanted Stanford University to thrive as a trade school. He played a major role in vaulting America into peak ascendancy, yet had few qualms bilking taxpayers out of millions of dollars in the process (before going on to be a U.S. Senator). And those are just a few of the threads that De Wolk pulls to weave an engaging and highly relevant portrait of a profoundly influential, turbulent and, yes—“scandalous” life." * Six Fifty *
"Stanford’s warts have long been on display, and De Wolk doesn’t avoid them, but the details the author has unearthed reveal a far more complex figure, one who clearly loved his wife and son. The author sums him up as an ordinary man who found himself in extraordinary circumstances and contends that history 'shows that the business Stanford pioneered was the foundation not only for Silicon Valley but also for the modern corporation itself.'" * HistoryNet *
"Vivid prose and a strong narrative drive." * Journal of Interdisciplinary History *
"
American Disruptor penetrates the thicket of hagiography surrounding Leland Stanford." * New York Review of Books *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Prologue: Fell Redemption
1. Start-Up
2. Everything Ventured
3. Crossing
4. The Gold under the Mountain
5. Ditching and Hitching
6. “The Road Must Be Built”
7. “Egyptian Kings and Dynasties Shall Be Forgotten”
8. Dungeons and Depredations
9. Living Up to the Landscape
10. Command and Control
11. “The Machine of Steam on the Road of Iron”
12. Unmasked
13. Gone Dark
14. Ingeniously Contrived Devices
15. Deposed
16. The Fundamental Standard
17. Sex and Socialism
18. “God Forgive Me My Sins. Am I Prepared to Meet My Dear Ones?”
Requiem: American Disruptor
Notes
Bibliographical Note
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Illustrations
